So, In Act II Cruel, I realized that playing melee, and not having Resolute Technique is the worst thing ever.

EVER

I ended up deleting my Marauder, and have migrated a ton of gems over to my Templar, respecced some, and picked up Resolute Technique, and have been driving forward, with a lot less problems. I've also swapped to Infernal Blow over Glacial Hammer, even though I still use Ice Nova for AoE. The Damage Mitigation of Glacial Hammer in a single target perspective was minimal enough in size that swapping over to the massive DPS increase of Infernal blow hasn't made me feel less tanky.

On the other hand, Ice Nova-ing large packs to chill and Freeze is still a massive boon to my Damage Mitigation, so it stays. I've also given up on trying to use Immortal call. It's cool, and maybe at higher levels of the gem if it gets a longer duration, it might be better, but right now, blowing 4 endurance charges for 1.2 seconds of damage immunity isn't helping much. So I've been tinkering with other gems to see what I like, and what I don't.

I have to say, maybe it's just that the marauder was my first char, or maybe they are just not good, but I am having a much better time on the Templar than I did on the Marauder.

Leap Slam is quite awesome. Not because of it's damage ability or because I can use it to get out of combat/in combat, but because I can use it to JUMP OVER WALLS instead of having to walk around the entire path just to get somewhere...

Skye1013 wrote:Leap Slam is quite awesome. Not because of it's damage ability or because I can use it to get out of combat/in combat, but because I can use it to JUMP OVER WALLS instead of having to walk around the entire path just to get somewhere...

I have thought about running it on my templar just for the mobility, even though I LOVE Shield Charge when the pathing doesn't fail.

Sure are! They also have more resistance to Deysnc, which is why I play one occasionaly when I'm soloing hardcore.

If you're on default I have a pretty well rolled Sidhebreath and a really crappy rolled Bones of Ullr lying around if you want to give them a whirl. I don't play much default anymore so they aren't doing me any good.

Ranger died at 64... it's ok though with the new Duelist changes they have much stronger RoA and LA builds anyway. New duelist is now up to level 37 sure wish I could have my tripple ele bow back... spent 3 exalts on it only to die 2 levels later...

Edit: IGN Gabzilla/Gabinha if you wanted to take me up on the summoner stuff.

Sure are! They also have more resistance to Deysnc, which is why I play one occasionaly when I'm soloing hardcore.

If you're on default I have a pretty well rolled Sidhebreath and a really crappy rolled Bones of Ullr lying around if you want to give them a whirl. I don't play much default anymore so they aren't doing me any good.

Ranger died at 64... it's ok though with the new Duelist changes they have much stronger RoA and LA builds anyway. New duelist is now up to level 37 sure wish I could have my tripple ele bow back... spent 3 exalts on it only to die 2 levels later...

Edit: IGN Gabzilla/Gabinha if you wanted to take me up on the summoner stuff.

I would be very interested in those items. I am on default, as Piety kicked my teeth down my throat in the crematorium. in Normal

But I wanted to stick with it, as it's been a lot of fun to do some crazy things. As only playing melee before, the Fetid Pool in Cruel was my bane. I went in there at 39, and stomped a mudhole in that place.

Turns out, a horde of the undead + an 8% Detonate Dead Is all you need to stomp that place. It was the easiest zone I've done in a while.

What are you looking to get for them? Chaos will reroll the bones right?

Shoju wrote:What are you looking to get for them? Chaos will reroll the bones right?

Free dollars, like I said I only play hardcore these days so default currency wouldn't do me much good. And no, the only way to reroll a unique's non-implicit stats is with a Regal (probably not worth it on Bones of Ullr unless its a 4L high MS).

The Bones are only 6/15% MS and a lone blue socket (pretty sure they are at least ilvl 15 so potential for 3, but again probably not worth the Jewelers/Fuses since they are only 6% MS).

The Sidhebreath is perfect other than the minion life (30/15/15/11).

I should be on this evening before raid (5-6:30 eastern). Or I'll be around this weekend most likely so you can send me a pm or friend request or whatever.

And yeah summoners are pretty ridiculous, minnion instability is OP. The only trouble I run into as a summoner is going up against rares/totems that grant invuln or sometimes necromancer type mobs. Flicker striking mobs can be annoying but they usually choose minions as their target so meh.

Edit: Divine not Regal...

Last edited by Gab on Thu Apr 04, 2013 10:18 am, edited 2 times in total.

Which brings me to the next thing. With the new gear I've acquired, my tooltip says "can summon up to 10 Skeletons at a time"But, MOST of the time, I see 11 running around, and a couple of times last night I had 12 running around. I couldn't figure out what the change was. I even double checked the tooltip, and it still said 10 skeletons.

I thought maybe one of my Spectres was doing it. I had summoned a "Casts Conductivity" Magic Sin Lord in the Chamber of Sins, and they also raise dead, but even after he died (Fidelitas is a punk, and he systematically killed my spectres first, even though I had 9 zombies, and 10-12 skellies out), they were still randomly showing extras.

In the little bit I've been doing this, I feel like the best spectres I have used are:

I leveled pretty fast last night. I'm up to 46, just taking on huge swaths of a zone at one time. I did die once, I was in the Broken Bridge Zone, and somehow managed to pull 4 magic packs, 4 rares, and then a couple of packs of bears. I should have run away, but I was determined to win. In the end, the rare archer with the poison arrows did me in.

Which brings me to the next thing. With the new gear I've acquired, my tooltip says "can summon up to 10 Skeletons at a time"But, MOST of the time, I see 11 running around, and a couple of times last night I had 12 running around. I couldn't figure out what the change was. I even double checked the tooltip, and it still said 10 skeletons.

I thought maybe one of my Spectres was doing it. I had summoned a "Casts Conductivity" Magic Sin Lord in the Chamber of Sins, and they also raise dead, but even after he died (Fidelitas is a punk, and he systematically killed my spectres first, even though I had 9 zombies, and 10-12 skellies out), they were still randomly showing extras.

In the little bit I've been doing this, I feel like the best spectres I have used are:

I leveled pretty fast last night. I'm up to 46, just taking on huge swaths of a zone at one time. I did die once, I was in the Broken Bridge Zone, and somehow managed to pull 4 magic packs, 4 rares, and then a couple of packs of bears. I should have run away, but I was determined to win. In the end, the rare archer with the poison arrows did me in.

Have I mentioned that I think Chaos Damage is worst thing? Ugh.

Yup, not a problem. I don't think I've ever seen more than the max on any minion regardless if I spectered a necro mob... so that's odd. Although I usually link my skeles to a spell totem and focus on dodging stuff and keeping my zombies maxed out, so couldn't really say for sure.

As far as Spectres go in addition to Tentacle Miscreations; Flame Sentinels (solaris), Lightning Banners (solaris) Burned Miscreations (lunaris), Carrion Queens (Slums) and Undying Alchs (Sewers) are some of my favorites. With the right support set ups you can get spectres that absolutely decimate everything.

Burned Miscreations are especially potent with Increased Aura Range and Fire Pen along with the usual suspects (minion life and damage) especially if your cursing stuff with flamability/ele weakness. Not to mention flamability/ele weakness go extremely well with Minion Instability. Plus their aura goes through walls... It's absolutely insane how fast they melt shit. They are a bit harder to keep alive than some of the ranged stuff so if I'm being lazy I'll usually go with Tentacle Miscreations, Lightning Banners, Undying Alchs or whatever.

There are a lot of minions that can be really strong depending on how you set up supports.

Chaos damage definitely is a PITA, and speccing Chaos Innoculation requires pretty good gear (less so in default I suppose). That why I like skeles linked to spell totem, more time to pay attention to keeping up curses and dodging bad.

Hmm... Both a Quill Rain and a Death's Harp dropped for me last night. So before I get too much further in my build I need to decide if I want to keep going with RoA or switch to a Quill Rain EA build or go with a Death's Harp LA. I'm enjoying RoA so far so maybe I'll just save them for the next time around. There's also the fact that an EA build would be really different from my current build so, while doable, isn't really very conservative with the respecs/regrets.

Also got a 17% Multi strike that I sold for 2 exalts, 2 GCPs. Probably could have gotten slightly more (another GCP or 2) but might as well sell 'em while they're hot.

I haven't seen a unique of my own drop.... in a couple of weeks. All told, I've seen 6 drop. Nothing amazing. The Low Level Kite Shield. The Low Level Bow. Araku Tiki, Wanderlust, and Ondar's grasp. My Ranger is currently sporting the Neck, Shoes, and Gloves. I sold the bow same day for 10 Alch.

My Current goal is getting my Summoner ready for Cruel Piety. I want to be about 55 when I go in, mainly so I know that I've picked up some more health from passives.

After that, I'm debating on where I'm going to go. I've outlined 4 "short" paths I could take.

More Passive Resist (Over in the templar area. The 30% from holding a shield) - because Merc's - to resist scares me More HP (at the beginning of the witch tree, the HP/ES clusterMore Minions. I have one more minion node. More Damage. The lightning Walker Path at the beginning of the Witch Tree.

That's sort of the order (from most likely to least likely) that I'm currently going with. Especially since the Queen's Decree I picked up on the cheap is being such a bastard with sockets. (100 jewelers in, and no more than 4 sockets on an ilvl 70)

So, if I go for the Passive Resist, I'll probably Head over after that, and pick up the Health and ES clusters, and then use the final destination so to speak as the final minion node. I'm currently running around with 12 Skellies, 8 Zombies, and 3 Spectres, and the only time I run into a problem is if I run into a pack of mobs, and get stupid.

Thank god they fixed the lag problem on the skeleton totem. That was brutal. I bet I lost half a level in Xp to deaths over that little bug.

I ended up rolling up a pair of really nice Rare ES Chests, both with 6s. I'm not sure what one I'm going to end up using, but one is 6s, and they are linked in pairs of 2, and the other is 6s, and only 2 sockets are linked. I would REALLY like to get a 5L, as that would allow me to drop my spectre in the chest.

I'm starting to think I'm more cut out for soft(scrub)core... Just can't seem to get over the cruel hump unless I want to break my rule of no ALT+F4 although I still would have died in 3 of the 4:

- 1st Ranger lvl 37 died to Rhoa (Desync?) in Mud Flats Cruel.

- 2nd Ranger lvl 64 died to Kole in Lunaris Cruel. That one was LOL 2 SHOT through granite flask...

- 1st Duelist lvl 46 died to Perpetus in City of Sarn Cruel.

- 2nd Duelist lvl 32 died to Rhoa (Desync?) in Mud Flats... for a 2nd time... you'd think I woulda learned to be more careful after the first time. I was still running two quicksilvers instead of a granite...

The Rangers I over-levelled because of my inexperience, the duelists I may have under levelled? Maybe I just need to over level the crap out of my next toon to get over the hump...

Just started an ele cleave Templar for the lulz but he'll probably be dead before any of the bow characters...

As far as your fusing issue, it might be cheaper to just trade for a 5L than craft it up yourself... You could get a 5L on your next fuse or it could take another hundred. Linking is probably the most trying part of the crafting system from my experiences anyway.

I'm just killed Brutus in Merciless on my Summoner. Still LoL EZ Mode. Unless something happens, I will be hitting maps on this one first, and probably soon. Up to 56.

Haven't touched my Templar, since I decided that I've probably ruined him somehow. He is just punishing to try and play in A3 Cruel. The Chaos Damage int he Sewers in murdering me, and I just can't seem to find enough CR Resist to offset the stupid penalty.

Have a little Shadow at 22 in A2 of Norm. Having fun playing Melee Claw. Need to figure out AoE. My build doesn't "support" my current AoE, so I'm mulling Over using another Dual Strike Gem with Melee Splash. But, I'll wait on that until Fire Trap / EK Spam isn't getting it done. I do feel weird, as what I have planned out has ZERO keystones. Only Ghost Reaver even mildly interests me on that side of the tree, and i'll wait on that to see what kind of ES I have running towards the end. This is my newest incarnation of attempting to make a Blood DK playstyle in PoE.

Started a Hardcore Templar. Just a few levels in. I think the most enjoyable thing so far, is having to start over on gems, and gear and currency. Thinking about going some sort of wand/Ranged thing to give it a shot.

I haven't played PoE much for about 2 months now (when I started working third shift), but I got the itch and I am looking for others to play with. Just friend my ice shot duelist CyanIII and message me if you see me on - I'm game for anything.

I started pretty strong in open beta getting to merciless within the first week with a lightning strike templar and then branched off into a multitude of characters (had 14 at one point) at various levels playing with friends but the majority of them have quit in my absence (or so I think).

My current line up (parred down to 6 as 14 was just too much to work on at once):CyanI - L30 Marauder, eventually going etheral knives, died over the weekend (standing in a horde of mobs and sweep only works when you kill them before you die)CyanII - L31 HC summoner witchCyanIII - L58 ice shot duelist - possibly my best character at survivalCyanIV - L62 wand templar - 1st death on cruel vaal, my furthest char at act 3 crematorium also my strongestCyanV - soon™ to be elemental hit ranger built around the elemental equilibrium keystone when I get the patience to start the character.CyanVI - L43 claw shadow - crazy face tanking build, as the acrobatics keystone removes all armor/es so this guy is pure hp and evasion - extremely fun and a heart attack every two seconds!

2 new leagues dropped with this new patch. I'm taking a break from standard right now, and playing in the anarchy league. I'm playing a Frenzy Ranger, and trying (and failing) at Evasion + Acrobatics. I'm currently planning an exit strategy from this really bad idea, while keeping the character.

The Game has officially launched, and they've made some radical changes. I'm enjoying the game, but I haven't tried the new boss fight "at level", I'll have more of an opinion once I try that at level. I fear there could be some computer performance issues with the fight, they might need to fix. It's.... Insane.

Shoju wrote:The Game has officially launched, and they've made some radical changes. I'm enjoying the game, but I haven't tried the new boss fight "at level", I'll have more of an opinion once I try that at level. I fear there could be some computer performance issues with the fight, they might need to fix. It's.... Insane.

Definitely good stuff.

The graphics, while there's always been a very high level of attention to detail for an indy game, are much improved.

New leagues and the new Passive tree along with balance changes to many of the skill gems make for great timing for newcomers to come in get in at as much of a "ground floor" as possible considering the game has technically been out for about 2 years (open and closed beta lasted about a year each).

Going to be all kinds of new possibilities. Good time to check it out if you haven't already.

I've been playing ARPGs since the original Diablo and overall my experiences in POE have been 2nd only to Diablo II. Perhaps even better then Diablo II since I've matured a bit since the DII days.

The developers are 2nd to none with community interaction and updates. Highly reccomend this game.

The game is really good, and really unforgiving at times. If you want a challenge, you can have a challenge. If you want "easy", you can play non hardcore. if you want "really hard", you can play the new nemesis league. Not as hard as Onslaught was, but still challenging.

And the races. Oh god, the races are great. I don't play a lot of them, but the new format, endless ledge (it's based on a tileset for a zone called ledge, that you run over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, with increasingly hard monster variety, and mods) is a blast.